This invention relates to stirring apparatus, and more particularly apparatus for stirring blood contained in a test tube to a homogeneously suspended state when supplying the blood in the test tube to an automatic diagnostic apparatus, and automatic sample supply apparatus which sequentially supply to and return from the diagnostic apparatus a plurality of test tubes arranged in a predetermined pattern, for example a matrix, in a magazine.
Blood diagnostic apparatus has been known capable of measuring with high reproduceability and at a high accuracy the number of red blood-corpuscles, the number of white blood-corpuscles, the number of blood plasmas, the concentration of coloring matter of the red blood-corpuscles, hematocrit value, etc., by utilizing a combination of laser technique and computer technique. When diagnosing blood with such diagnostic apparatus, a test tube containing sampled blood is brought to a test tube set position where the blood in the test tube is sucked by an aspirator extending from the diagnostic apparatus and supplied to a measuring unit thereof.
When supplying the blood to be diagnosed to the diagnostic apparatus, it is necessary to maintain the blood in a homogeneously suspended state. According to the prior art practice, the operator stirres the blood by shaking the bottom of the test tube with his hand. With manual stirring, however, stirred state differs greatly for respective test tubes, thus failing to uniformly stir so that it requires a considerable skill to obtain satisfactorily suspended state by stirring without destroying red and white blood corpuscles. Except a case wherein blood should be rapidly diagnosed, in a hospital or the like where blood of many patients are to be diagnosed, it is necessary to diagnose several hundreds or more samples, which requires not only many operators but also large labor and time.
Except an urgent case, where several hundreds of sample blood are to be diagnosed, with a prior art machine, the operator brings the test tubes, one after the other, to the test tube set position of the diagnostic apparatus, then slightly elevates the tube at the set position to insert the aspirator into the tube, finally bring back the empty tube. This cycle of operation is repeated for a number of the test tubes.
In some cases, the blood in the test tube is not completely sucked and the test tube containing remaining blood is transferred to other apparatus where different type of diagnosis is made. Where a number of test tubes are used it is advantageous to array them in rows and columns of a matrix. In such a case, it is necessary to bring back the test tube containing remaining blood to the original position of the matrix which also increases the burden of the operator.